49 Lies I Rejected When I Renounced Phariseeism eBook

by Mark and Patti Virkler | 112 Pages

If you have ever believed any of the following lies, then this book is for you: "Emotions are soulish;" "Money is evil or secular;" "It is wrong to seek vision;" "Don’t trust experiences;" "God gave me a mind and expects me to use it;" "Politics are evil;" God is always beating on me;" or one of 43 more such detestable lies...

Individual Products

If you have ever believed any of the following lies, then this book is for you: "Emotions are soulish;" "Money is evil or secular;" "It is wrong to seek vision;" "Don’t trust experiences;" "God gave me a mind and expects me to use it;" "Politics are evil;" God is always beating on me;" or one of 43 more such detestable lies...

Could I Really Be a Pharisee Imprisoned in Error?

Though I didn't know it, I grew up a well-tutored pharisee. It never crossed my mind that there might be pharisees around today. I don't know why it didn't occur to me - they were the number one problem Jesus faced when He walked among men. Did I assume human nature had changed? Did I assume they were no more?

The purpose of this book is to identify 49 specific lies which hinder our walk in the Spirit and imprison us in error, repent of them, and establish new foundations in the Spirit which we can walk upon as we take steps forward in the anointing of the Holy Spirit. It is a record of my two-way journaling where God lovingly yet firmly called me to move from error to truth.

Wow! Even a Self-check Test to Help Me See My Blind Spots!

In this book you can take a 40-question test to discover if you have any pharisaical tendencies. (It's both fun and sobering.) What an eye opener this was for me. The results of this test provided me a great opportunity to repent and get off the wrong path. To get me on the right path, the Lord gave me 1-2 pages of two-way journaling on His truths which countered each of the 49 lies I had believed. He replaced my lies and illumined my darkness. He did it lovingly and gently, yet firmly. It was the kindest rebuke and instruction I had ever received. What a glorious heart surgery God performed on me! My prayer is for God to do the same for you, so that you are set free to walk in the Spirit in an new and wonderful way. Let's get out of our prisons of error and get onto God's highway of righteousness, power and anointing!

I Must Repent of Religion So I Do Not Block the Move of the Holy Spirit

When I look at the effect of these lies, I am certain they came from satan (the father of lies) with the goal of obstructing my Christian walk, which is exactly what they did for many years, and exactly why I wrote this book. I wanted to clearly identify each of these lies so I could repent of them and move on with my life. Since I am a teacher, I wanted to provide a road map for you so you too could repent and get on with a successful Christian life! Repenting of these lies removes us from boxes and prisons we have built for ourselves, and gives us a new platform in the Holy Spirit upon which we may walk.

12 of these lies drew me away from trusting and living out of my heart, and told me to live out of my mind instead. Of course, the Bible has only 100 verses on mind and 1400 on heart and spirit, so God puts 14 times more emphasis on my heart and my spirit than on my mind. Boy, did I have it wrong! Out of the heart flow the issues of life (Prov. 4:23).

16 of the lies led me to use an unbiblical method for pursuing knowledge. Well, that will ensure I never come to truth!

10 of the lies made sure that I would not honor and love all people, but would be committed to destroying the unity of the body of Christ. Yikes!

15 of them guaranteed that I would not believe in the supernatural power and wisdom of God to be active in my life today. How’s that for reducing me from radiating Christ to living out of self?

24 of them insured I did not have the power or belief that I could disciple nations as God had commanded me to in the great commission (Matt. 28:18-20). Instead I believed in the power of the evil one.

20 of them taught me the wrong approach to Christian growth. It was all trying and self-effort, and no relaxing into His arms.

And there were more! Since the numbers above add up to more than 49 lies, we can see that one lie negatively impacts more than just one area of our lives.

Now, do you see why it was important for me (and for you) to identify these lies, repent of them, renounce them and replace them with God's truth? If we don’t then we have no hope of living the life God intended us to live, or fulfilling the destinies God has created us for.

One more thing: You will discover as you go through this book how lovingly and gently God corrects us. He does not condemn us for our lies and errors. He does not judge us or come against us or call us names. He lovingly speaks truth to us, convincing us of His truth. He edifies and lifts us up as He corrects. I found that I had never been corrected in such a loving manner! You will appreciate His correction beyond measure, and through it, learn how to lovingly correct others!

I am convinced that recent moves of God have stalled and in many cases reverted back to religion because we have not properly identified our religious ways of thinking, and repented and thoroughly rejected them. We have tried to put the new wine into old wineskins and brought death to the moves of God. So God moves again and again, because He is going to have a Church without spot or wrinkle. I want to see it come to pass in our generation, and I invite you to join with me in the renouncing of 49 lies of phariseeism which the Lord has shown me. Will you join me on a path toward true, living, vital Christianity?

Related Materials

You'll want to check out the accompanying notebook called Release from Religionwhich leads you into Bible research concerning each of the 49 themes discussed in this 49 Lies book. By combining this biblical research in Release from Religion with the 100 pages of journaling in 49 Lies, you have a powerful combination of the Word and the Spirit working together to change your life! You can purchase these two books as a set here.

Taste and see -- An excerpt from the book 49 Lies...

Lie Number Thirty-five: To Measure Ourselves by Ourselves

I have gone to school and to church and I have constantly been challenged to compare myself with others. Why, in college we were even graded on a curve. It never seemed quite fair because then only the 2% in the highest part of the class were able to receive A’s. The rest of us got B’s and C’s and D’s, regardless of how well we did. I remember deserving an A and getting a D one time. I sure felt it was unfair.

It is unfair, My son. I did not make you to compete with one another. I made you to complement one another. I made you to give yourselves to one another and to assist one another, not to come against one another in the unfairness of grading. Yes, grading is unfair, especially when one is graded against another.

You see, I have created each of you to be unique. Each of you is different. Each of you has different gifts and different talents and different callings. To place you into a graded classroom and expect the same thing out of each of you is ridiculous. I do not expect that. I did not create you for that. I created you to be you. You have your own individual fingerprint. No one else is like you. You are a special gift to My world. However, the special giftedness of My children is most often lost in the herd mentality of the classroom.

And it is not just the classroom. No, My son. Religion, especially that which poses as Christianity, most often does the same thing. They demand allegiance to that which I have not called them to. They make each one the same rather than cultivating each one’s individual giftedness. Thus they make their converts twice as much a son of destruction as they are. They destroy the imprint of My giftedness upon My children rather than cultivating it. Therefore I am against them, saith the Lord of Hosts, and I will bring down their house with great thunder and great noise, and great shall be the destruction of it. Think not that I have come to bring peace into the world. No, in this case I have come to bring a sword. Have I not spoken in My Word that when you measure yourselves by yourselves, and compare yourselves with yourselves, that you are without understanding (II Cor. 10:12)?

Why would My Church and My world so totally disregard the plain teaching of My Word? Because they have been blinded by the evil one. And their inheritance is no more, because that which I have given to them has been devoured by the evil one. Woe, weep and mourn for the miseries which have come upon you, My church. You are not even conscious of that which you have lost. However, I shall restore it to him who will stand against the tide and endure. To him it shall be granted to enter into eternal life. Judge not lest ye be judged. Now go in My peace.

Personal Response

Lord, I will not judge myself or others by anything other than Your gifts and calling upon our individual lives.

Think and Discuss

Read II Corinthians 10:12.

What is the result of comparing ourselves by ourselves and measuring ourselves with ourselves? Does it produce strength or insecurity, faith or fear, love or jealously? Can we test a thing by its fruit? Does the fruit this process produces reveal anything to us? Do we see gifted geniuses releasing their special creativity into our world, or have most of them been overcome by the process of education? What is God speaking to you?

A Testimony as the Lord Brings Increased Freedom From Legalism

What Does God Think of TV? – Two-way Journaling from a CLU Student
Lord, what do You think about us having television again? (We have had no TV for over a year…)

Let me ask you, My daughter - why do you want it back?

Jesus, I guess to be entertained, to relax, to not think, to laugh, to be stimulated intellectually, to be informed. Is that wrong?

No, it’s not wrong, but what purpose does this serve?

To pass time, to not think.

Here is My take on it, My beloved child. TV is neither evil nor righteous. It is a box.

But isn’t what we do with the box, right? Like maybe I should soak for an hour, then watch TV for an hour.

Daughter, get out of the realm of the legalistic. Watch TV WITH Me. Eat WITH Me. Sleep WITH Me. Drive WITH Me. Teach WITH Me. Walk WITH Me. Sit WITH Me. Look at the Weather Network WITH Me.

Michele, invite Me into every area of your life. Do not see activities as righteous or evil. You know evil. I trust you. You get that. You know when to quit an activity, when to turn away. As you invite Me into every minute of your day, I will order it. Get out from under the law. You are free in ME. It is for freedom that you have been set free.

Take It to the Next Level

To ensure that this message transforms your life, we offer you four options. Any of these choices will assist you in internalizing this teaching, helping you to be a doer of the word and not a hearer only (James 1:22) and allowing you to produce a bountiful harvest in your life.

Opportunity 1 – Host a home or church group

We learn more quickly if we are surrounded by others who are seeking to master the same skill. Pray and ask God who you know who might want to grow in this truth also and open your home to them for 10-12 weekly sessions (or host a small group in your church). We provide several resources to help you present this powerfully and effectively in a group setting, including DVDs and application activities. Experience the joy of cultivating skills together with a group of friends! Discover how to create and post your group…

Opportunity 2 – Hire a Personal Spiritual Trainer to coach you

Coaching or discipling is the method Jesus used to train the twelve disciples.

When you team up with someone ahead of you in an area to mentor you, and you share your questions and steps of growth with them, receiving their counsel in return, you ascend more quickly into mastery in that area. We have trained coaches who have mastered this topic who will commit to working with you for a 90-day period.

Opportunity 3 – Take this as a college course from home

Earn college credit while being apprenticed to mastery in this area! This topic is available as a course which you can take from your home through the distance learning program offered at Christian Leadership University. You may enroll in this course as a lifelong learner or apply it toward an Associate, Bachelor, Master or Doctoral degree.

Opportunity 4 – Host a seminar for your community

Transform your church and region by hosting a weekend seminar with an anointed trainer, where an impartation is released by the Holy Spirit into your community. Mark Virkler and others are available to be scheduled.

The Obama Administration recently opened a can of worms by insisting that Catholic institutions provide birth control services to women despite the official doctrine of the Church against birth control. Can the government tell the church that it must violate its own doctrine? Does a liberal interpretation of "women's rights" trump a longstanding church polity?